Academic Literacies: reading and writing in a …...Academic Literacies: reading and writing in a...

Academic Literacies: reading

and writing in a Course of

Textile Engineering

Adriana Fischer

M. Lourdes Dionísio

Research Centre on Education (CIEd), University of Minho (UM)

Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT)

PORTUGALUKLA’s 46th Annual International Conference. The Changing Face of Literacy: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

Centro de Investigação em Educação

Outline

Research contextualization

Methodological aspects

Data and analysis

Conclusions

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Introducing...

“They do not produce anything, only the exam” (2nd year

teacher 1)

“It is hard for them to understand the problem and

resolving it” (2nd year teacher 2)

“They find it difficult not only to produce something but

also to comprehend it” (2nd year teacher 3)

“Nowadays they have many difficulties in writing their

reports. And they do it badly” (2nd year teacher 4)

1st year of the research

Aim

Identify and characterize genres that specialize

reading and writing practices at the University of

Minho (Portugal)

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Research questions

o What genres are to be used to acquire and to produce

knowledge?

o How do students cope with genres generalities and

specificities?

The context and the object of the research

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Reading and writing difficulties are linked to new discourse objects that students

discover at the university.

Engineering students: genres for reading and writing


Literacy in academic context

LITERACY: a set of flexible

cultural practices

-institutions, public

interests, power relations,

identities (Street, 1995,2009;

Lea & Street, 2006)

“Academic literacies”: ways of knowing in different disciplines (Donahue, 2007)

A university course:

a social and

cultural context (Gee, 1999, 2001)

Genres:

- structural and rhetorical features,

‘hidden features’ (Street, 2009)

- discourse socialization and

participation

- ‘mediators’

(Bazermann & Prior, 2005)6


Ethnographic approach

Classroom observations

Document collection:

lists of texts to be read and actually read by students

curricular forms

instructional materials

students’ written works

Interviews and informal conversations (students;

teachers)

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the reason: to get a very complete portrait of

the textual world of these people

Genres in the Course of Textile Enginnering

GenresSource 1:Institutional

and teaching

materials

Source 2:Students’

written works

and curricular

documents

Source 3:Students

and teachers

interviews

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they structure and organise

the teaching and learning

processes

they are related to the

technical and business sphere

Data and analysis

genres as

mediators

Roles and positions of genres among people interaction

genres as

mediators

•lessons’ outlines

• students’ notes and

summaries

•equipment and textile

catalogues

•technical books and

documents

•teachers’ presentations in

PPT format

Data and analysis

•tests and exams forms

• problems (calculus)

•manuals

•agendas and minutes of tutorial

meetings

•technical laboratory procedures

• students’ presentations in PPT

format

• reports and project reports

Report(s)

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“We adapt, and we try to use more or less the same

rules”. (Student)

Data and analysis

• the most frequent and specialized genre in the course

• uncertain procedures for writing

•support for writing: report models

• reports are not the “same” in the several disciplines

“If it has been approved by teachers last year, why not

to use it too?” (Student)

Project Report (part 1)

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IPReport

D 4

D 3

D2

D 1 IP = Interdisciplinary Project

D = Discipline

Students are supposed

to produce a report

integrating knowledge

from that semester’s

disciplines

Data and analysis


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1) double nature

written

oral 2) from written Report to

Report Oral Presentation:

“recontextualization”

evidences of another “text”

different criteria of

evaluation

another “social language”:

the Report Oral

Presentation

Data and analysis


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“The project report is a creation of our own; it is our idea”

(Student)

Data and analysis

HOW TO IDENTIFY HIDDEN FEATURES…

o to be successful… it is expected an argumentative line of

reasoning

o the integration of knowledge: headings; calculus; figures,

introduction and conclusion; theoretical references

o from written to oral mode of the Report: it duplicates and

increases the “hidden features” of the genre

students seem sensible to some “hidden features”

(Street, 2009)


students: learn “by doing” and by being

“corrected” in tutorial sessions and after the

Report Oral Presentation15

When it comes to a written assignment we

never know who participated. And when it

comes to oral task, we do… They have to

explain why they integrate some kind of

knowledge.

(Course Director)

Data and analysis

Challenging and misterious task…

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o The role of genres: knowledge acquisition -

assessment oriented texts

o REPORTo the most important genre in the course

o it aims at making students more active in their

knowledge acquisition process

o full of hidden features – both in written and oral

modes

Conclusions

Conclusions

the majority of students are always in deficit !

References

BAZERMAN, C., PRIOR, P. (2005). Participating in emergent socio-literate

worlds: genre, disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity. In J. Green & R. Beach (Eds.),

Multidisciplinary perspectives on literacy research (133-78). Urbana IL: NCTE.

DONAHUE, T. (2007). Reframing “writing in the disciplines” and genre: cross-

cultural exploration. Proceedings: Siget, Brazil.

GEE, J. P. (2001). Reading as situated language: a sociocognitive

perspective. Journal of Adolescent & Adult literacy 44, no. 8, 714-25.

GEE, J. P. (1999). Sociolinguistics and literacies: ideologies in discourse. 2nd

ed. London: Falmer Press.

LEA, M. R., STREET, B. V. (2006). The ‘academic literacies’ model: theory

and applications. Theory into practice 45, no.4: 368-77.

STREET, B. V. (2009). ‘Hidden’ features of academic paper writing. Working

Papers in Educational Linguistics.

http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/background9.htm Queen Mary,

University of London.

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Obrigada pela vossa atenção!

Thank you for your attention!

Adriana Fischer

[email protected]

Maria de Lourdes Dionísio

[email protected]

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